### http://www.nytimes.com December 31, 2009Rose Bowl Hopes to Bet Future on a Makeover
By Billy Witz
PASADENA, Calif. — As parade floats were being prepared nearby and workers busied themselves with final touches to the Rose Bowl, the 87-year-old stadium looked as ready as ever for the two close-ups it will receive in the next week. First, it will host, as it always does, the Rose Bowl game on New Year’s Day. Then, six days later, it will be home to the Bowl Championship Series title game.

For Darryl Dunn, the general manager of the stadium, and other officials, after a week of being at the centre of the college football world, the real work will begin: completing plans and applying for bonds for a $164 million renovation of the stadium. The project, [to] start in January 2011, would be completed four years from now — in time for the 100th Rose Bowl game and the return of the B.C.S. title game.

Short on money and ideas, Dunn called Janet Marie Smith, who as the Red Sox’ vice president for planning and development oversaw the improvements that were made at Fenway after the team was sold in 2002 to John Henry, one of the few prospective owners who did not want a new stadium for the team. They met and soon Smith and her team were in Pasadena as consultants, researching the Rose Bowl, interviewing community leaders and studying the possibilities.

“Some of it is born out of sentiment, but it’s also born out of practicality,” Smith said. “There’s an important reality on communities and sports teams that you don’t always have to start over.”

What helped was that the same conservation ethic that existed in Boston was alive in Pasadena, whose downtown revitalisation in the 1980s was pivotal in the city’s financial turnaround. If much of Los Angeles is a testament to development run amok, Pasadena is keen on embracing its heritage.Read more